Visceral Glow

I was going to call this painting 'RIP Habs' since our hockey team was eliminated from the conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight. At least they had a surprisingly good run and we got moments of excitement. I made a painting on location down at the arena during one of the matches. Instead the painting is called Visceral Glow because it kind of looks like internal organs, and uses a glow-effect technique that I explored with some recent digital artwork. You can click on the digital tag to see all those blogs. By studying the digital images up close, I am starting to figure out how to paint neon-glow effects with watercolour, which is exceedingly difficult to do with real paint. Digitally it is quite easy though... in fact making digital art is like Charles the Gorilla... he was a gorilla at the Toronto zoo who liked to finger paint, and the zoo sold his work to raise money. What I do is much the same. I think using a paintbrush to do watercolours is old fashioned and somewhat obsolete, but I still enjoy it immensely. The fact you can make art with just paint, paper, brushes, and attitude will never grow old. 

Visceral Glow, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, May 2026

Another Digital Dump

Here is the last batch of digital art images I made while travelling recently, they are done with Sketchbook App on Amdroid. In this example I started with 'finger painting' various shapes, then overlaying with a textural mesh, followed by boxes. Contrast is important in abstract art, ideally there are both white and black elements with various middle shades. 

This piece features starburst shape stencils with various sizes... I set the tool to randomize the size, so I just click around the screen with colour variations. A full range of colours are represented, along with textural spots placed over top. 

There is a neon brush tool that works best on a dark background. Overlapping the shapes leads to increasing illusion of brightness. Some textural meshes were added to create a tactile sense of fabric. It looks like a night-time fire show, I though about my Samoa painting while doing this one. 

Primary colour scribbles were surrounded by an earthy, textural frame and grid. To create juicy brush strokes I used a soft pastel tool, it gives a crumbly appearance reminiscent of crayons. To do the signature I zoom in and use an appropriate style that matches the overall composition and colour scheme.  

 

Organic forms were created with pattern brushes. I like this one because it looks almost alien, as if looking into the bottom of an ocean of a moon of Saturn. wiggly larvae wait to hatch into something creepy. 

 

At the end of a previous blog, I did a painting of an old red post stenciled with a number, it was heavily rusted with silver spray paint graffiti. I was trying to figure out how to simulate a metallic glow, which was done here with variations of grey on an earthy background. 

 

Who needs the Habs when you have Romeo?

I rode down to the Bell Centre hoping to do a painting of the sun setting, get it? Sun setting on the Habs. The Habs is a nickname for our local hockey team, and they are close to being out of the playoffs now, although made a good run so far and it aint over. What I found were police blockades and lots of people walking around as if in a dance club. Closer inspection of the Bell Centre and I saw an ad for Romeo Santos, who turns out to be a popular Latin American singer doing a concert at the Bell Centre arena. 

Romeo concert blockade, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Changing McD to McP, this painting shows a fast food restaurant next to the Bell Centre, along with a lamp and adjacent construction fence. A massive condo looms in the background.

McP dusk, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Looking east and I caught this view of the CN building in the background still illuminated blue white and red, the Habs colours. I changed CN to PJD just to be a smartass. On the right is the facade of the arena with its illuminated player images. No sign for Romeo Santos however. 

CN Habs colours, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Slightly to the northeast, is this view of Place Villa Maria lit up in Habs colours, with a rotating beam of light emanating from the top of the rooftop restaurant. There was a convenient spotlight to stand under, and the police barricades meant no cars on this road, so I could stand and paint. 

Place Villa Maria Habs colours,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Looking for a good view of the nearly-full moon, I found an interesting scene of the commuter train rolling by, with lamps and grass in the foreground, and the elevated REM track in the background. The canal was visible on the bottom of the scene but I'm back to using 5 x 7" and its too small for certain compositions. 

Lamp glow commuter train, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Finally getting a good view of the moon, here it is hanging over the REM train that goes off island. In the background are some of the new developments along the shore. 

Moon over REM train, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Starry night under bridge

Looking at this scene of the Decarie expressway got me thinking of the Suriname painting I did in the World Inspired Landscapes series which featured glowing eyes in a dark jungle. Here, the car head and tail lights gave a similar impression but from underneath an overpass bridge. That bizarre feature in the foreground is from another painting I started but never finished decades ago, as usual it got cut up and used for more paintings. Thus, its a realistic painting with surrealism elements added in. Last year as I was using a lot of backs of paintings, I used this method for some weird results. Since I am getting towards the end of the paintings I can cut up, it occurred to me to paint something abstract on a large piece of paper with the intention of cutting it up and using it for landscape painting later on. 

Starry night under bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Shadowed graffiti old port

This iron bridge crosses the Peel Basin where the Lachine canal ends. Its a busy bridge that carries local commuter trains, REM off island train, and VIA domestic Canada trains. Represented in the painting is a local commuter train, although I painted it mostly from memory since trains go by too fast to paint them. On the iron bridge someone wrote PSYCHO, a graffiti writer, but I replaced it with my initials. Underneath you see some water reflections. One of these days I will do a water-reflection themed trip. 

Commuter train bridge Peel Basin, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

This is the gear factory wall in Old Port... the factory is long gone, just four walls barely standing with the help of steel supports. Obviously a heritage structure under protection, it has a number of graffiti names on its stony wall. To paint the silver-paint, I started with a wet-in-wet circle of pale purple grey, then surrounded it in a dark brown made with indo blue (PB60) and burnt yellow ochre (PR102). That combo is very useful, it makes dark brown, and purplish greys depending on the ratio of pigments. Finally, I outlined in red, then used a hog's hair brush for some stippling texture. Its a realistic looking silver paint effect. In the background you see part of the Canal and some city-scape. 

Shiny graff gear wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Looking through one of the windows on the Gear wall I caught this view of old silos, a warehouse, and off the the left in the background, the Canadian Maltage factory with its famous Farine Five Roses sign on an angle. I used a pale mix of indo blue x burnt yellow ochre to start off with, varying the tints with purple (PV55) and raw sienna (PBr7). Then I over-painted the silo with yellow ochre (PY43) to give a peeling paint effect, and finished with my graffiti initials outlines in black, yellow and red at the top of the silos. And I didn't even have to climb up there to do it! 

Graff silos Old Port, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

 

Ernest Cormier Esplanade, structures flowering trees

Across from the Canadian Centre for Architecture, in between the Fort street ramps, there is a wide expanse of landscaping and concrete structures called the Ernest Cormier Esplanade. I discovered the spot awhile ago this year, and have returned to see if the trees were making flowers yet. Its a good spot to paint, although the constant traffic on all sides can be a little noisy at times. This scene it looking at some of the odd art-installation structures made up of abstract architectural elements. I used my 2 inch hog's hair brush to do the stippling effect on the gravel. I started bringing it on my bike trips to do such effects on location. 

Ernest Cormier Esplanade watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Some trees were indeed still flowering, perhaps crab apple, they had white and pink blossoms. The wind was strong today and I could smell the flower aroma. I tried to keep everything light and bright here like Van Gogh used to paint. 

Flowering trees Ernest Cormier Esplanade, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2026

By close-cropping the composition, I created an abstract scene from surrounding elements on location. Above you see part of the off ramp signage that leads down to the highway, with a bus and car in the foreground. In the background is part of the Esplanade, with one of the bizarre art-installations looming. 

Off ramp architecture elements, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026 

Digital pop art, patterns, stamps

Another batch of digital artwork made on Sketchbook app on my smartphone. This one is like the Rolling Stones go to the dentist. Say cheese.  

 

A pattern tool allows for textured wallpaper-like effects. It reminds me of an early drawing tool that I used on the original Macintosh computer back in the 80's, a friend of ours had one and I played around with it, first time using a mouse too. 

 

Purple haze on a tablet... in the central area I overlapped smooth and textured features, and figured out how to make small speckles. The frame and other elements are free-hand... or free-finger rather since these are all made with my index finger. 

 

Initially made in colour, I changed it to black and white to emphasize the amazing textural variations. A stamping tool allows for the feathery-effects and paint splatters. Each feature tool can be customized to control size, density, randomization and even adjust how it looks with heavy or light press on the screen. 

 

More neon-effects done on a near-black background, its like an underwater deep-sea creature. I even signed on the bottom right with a violet neon pen tool. A dark-red thorny pattern was added in a single press using stamp tool. I kept redoing the thorn effect until it looked right. There is a handy undo feature which is obviously a big advantage to digital art. 

 

After establishing bright primary patterns in the background, I tried quite a few things until landing on dark blue pattern overlay. So there were no 'pen strokes' here, just multi-layered patterns, Bohemian-style.